Another NFU blog post on Performance Measurement Systems you might think. And yes, that is exactly what this is because just before Christmas, NFU published “NFU Guidelines on Performance Measurement Systems”.

Performance Measurement Systems are already a widespread phenomenon in the financial sectors, and it is not looking as the systems will disappear any time soon. The increasingly digital work life will also enable measurement in real-time. Recently, we came across an article on a new monitoring tool that measures the employees’ behavior as-well as emotional pattern to identify and predict risky behavior. So far, it does not seem to have been put in to use but is an example of the urge to monitor everything that possibly can be monitored.

It is also clear that the people behind that monitor tool do not have the employees’ interests at heart. That is why the NFU Guidelines on Performance Measurement Systems is important. The measurement systems in place in the Nordic financial sectors are far from as extensive as the tool described here, but employees are constantly being measured on aspects such as time, number of meetings and customer satisfaction.

For NFU it is not about taking a stand on whether to use or not use performance measurement systems. Instead, our focus is to put the employees’ perspective in focus and boost a dialogue on the issue. To create a healthy and attractive working environment, employees need to feel that there is mutual trust between them and the management. Employees also need to be given enough time and resources to be able to carry out their work. Performance measurement systems, if used wrong, risk to undermine these aspects and instead put excessive pressure and work-load on the employees.

With the NFU Guidelines on Performance Measurement Systems, we put the employee perspective in focus with a set of recommendations on what to consider when discussing the use, implementation and design of Performance Measurement systems. I also believe, that by doing so, we can create a more attractive, sustainable and trustworthy financial sector that customers, employees, companies and society all benefit from,

Read the full Guidelines and our press release here.